Since the possibility of Safeway and Albertsons merging first became public, your Union has been working to protect your interests and make sure that the hard working men and woman who have made Safeway successful had their voices heard. On Friday, January 30, the merger became final. Due the strength of your Union, and the protections of Article 1 of our contract with Safeway, we maintain our jobs, pay, benefits, seniority, and collective bargaining agreement with the newly merged company.
With mergers like this there is often the threat of store closures. We have been in contact with Safeway about this and were assured by them in writing on January 13 of this year that they have no current plans to close any stores covered by our collective bargaining agreement. If that changes with the merged company, they will have to notify us under the terms of our current agreement.
Remember – without our Union, employees would have been nothing but an afterthought in this deal. With our Union, our solidarity, and our strong contract language, we were an important player and preserved our wages and benefits, and our jobs.